Socially Conscious Children

I normally don't write about "stuff" but since I use this blog to document my kids lives and use it essentially as a baby book for them you will have to bear with me for the lack of cute photo's and just deal with the "stuff" for this post, it's pretty funny though so you might want to keep reading!

It's probably not uncommon for your 4 year old or 2 year old (girls mind you) to throw a ginormous, huge, crying, ultra dramatic end of the world fit that results in them locking themselves in their room crying and refusing to come out until they get their way.  No surprises there right?  It has been happening pretty regularly in our house these days.  It happened a few weeks ago when Hayden didn't want to go to school which was two days before she won an award for "always making good choices".  No problem I can handle that, I let her go to her room and cry it out and eventually she came out ready for school.  But the last couple have been a little more difficult to deal with only because I have no clue what to do about them (except try my hardest not to laugh).

It all started last Friday (9/21), the girls had a dentist appointment in the morning so I took them to the appointment and all over the news and the radio they were saying that the Space Shuttle Endeavor would be flying through Bakersfield en route to it's retirement home at some museum in Southern California.  I thought it would be fun to see if we could see it as it came through.  Well we waited and waited in Olivia's daycare front yard and we never saw it, the girls were disappointed but we dropped Olivia off and I was off to take Hayden to school.  On the way to school Hayden started screaming from the backseat...she spotted it!!  Now it wasn't as close up as the picture below (which I borrowed from the google) but you could tell it looked like two planes and it was flying low.  She was so excited to see it and so was I, but then the questions started coming.

Where is it going?  Why is it retiring? Does that mean it's not going in space anymore?  Who is going to explore the moon now?  How are we going to know about stars and flying rocks (meteors? how does she know about meteors?)?  Are we getting a new space shuttle?  Luckily I didn't have much time to answer these questions because it was a short drive to school.  However, once I picked her up they started right back up again.  I tried my best to answer them and we got the Ipad out and looked at all the "shuttle sightings" that were posted on Facebook and at Disneyland (because it flew over Disneyland too) and the golden gate bridge.  It was awesome. 

Then it happened....the complete meltdown.  "I don't want the space shuttle to retire, it has to go back to space, how are we going to get pictures of earth and see the stars?, and how is pluto going to get home? (I think this is from an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, just a guess because I don't think she is talking about the planet)."  The tears began to flow and the she was having trouble breathing, she ran to her room and slammed the door.  Olivia and I just looked at each other not sure exactly what to do...who knew that a 4 year old could be so socially conscious?  Not me that's for sure!

Eventually she calmed down and came out of her room, I told her it would be fine and maybe once the space shuttle gets settled we can go to the museum and see it and I showed her pictures of the Mars Rover and said people will still explore space just not with the space shuttle.  Luckily we were going to the county fair and that got her mind off of it for a while, except every one we ran into wanted to talk about the shuttle and did we see it.  Holy hell, I was so tired of the dang space shuttle talk I just wanted to eat a baked potato and a cinnamon roll and maybe see a cow in labor!

(Our official 2012 fair photo)

On the way home, Hayden said she was really sad that the shuttle was retiring and had the same conversation she did with me earlier now only with her Dad this time.  So this was the second time Olivia and I heard her "concerns".  Finally Olivia piped up and said "Why don't you just fly to the moon and we will get a new Hayden"!  Scott and I looked at each other and we all just busted up laughing, thankfully Hayden laughed too. 

Finally, we were laughing not worrying about the future of the space program!  Please don't ask me why our 4 year old is even worrying about this.  She should be concerned about how long it will stay warm outside so she can keep wearing flip flops and swim a few more times this year and how much candy she is going to get trick or treating and what she wants to ask Santa for.  Then again I am kind of grateful she is thinking about things that are bigger than just her and us in our little bubble.  Luckily, the next day I had warned the world via facebook we were no longer discussing the shuttle and please not to mention it!! 

It worked until we were out and about and someone made a comment about how we needed to get rid or President Obama and her reply was (in a huffy tone) "Hey he is our President, we shouldn't talk bad about him"!  All day she reminded Olivia that Obama was our President and he tries his best for us no matter what people say and we shouldn't talk bad about him (don't ask me where she got this from definitely not from our house).  Please lord, help me learn how to deal with a 4 year old going on 24 but thank you for making her a kind, considerate, caring, and socially conscious little girl!

This picture pretty much proves which of them is going to be the serious one!  Upside down sunglasses is the new "cool" as far as Olivia's concerned!